Image source, Reuters

The Hamas-run government media office in Gaza has called on Egypt to open the Rafah border crossing to allow the transfer of 6,000 wounded people from the territory for treatment abroad "immediately and urgently".

It makes the plea in light of the "catastrophic reality that the health sector and hospitals in the Gaza Strip are suffering from".

In a statement, it says Israeli bombardment has put 30 facilities "completely out of service", adding that the "number of infections has now exceeded 58,000".

It says that currently only 10 to 20 wounded are allowed to be transferred through the crossing daily and urges Egypt to improve its mechanism so that "hundreds and thousands" can be approved for transfer "instead of approving only a few dozen".

The media office issues an appeal "to all countries of the world to intervene" and calls on the international community and the US to put pressure on Israel to stop the war.

"We call on everyone to bear their moral and humanitarian responsibility in the face of the suffering of civilians, children and women in the Gaza Strip, as they are slaughtered from vein to vein while the world watches this tragedy."

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

The Wall Street Journal has been speaking to the Israeli Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, ahead of the arrival of the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Tel Aviv.

His comments to the US newspaper amount to a staunch defence of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza.

Gallant suggests the intensity of the offensive is due to “the gravity of the threat” posed by Hamas but also shows determination “to act with enough force to deter other potential adversaries allied with Iran, including Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon.”

The minister, who sits in Israel’s war cabinet, says his country is beginning to make a shift from intensive combat to special operations in Gaza.

At the same time, he warns this stage of the conflict "will last for a longer time".

Gallant also signals Israel’s defence posture has changed in the wake of the 7 October attacks.

“My basic view: We are fighting an axis, not a single enemy,” he says. “Iran is building up military power around Israel in order to use it.”

International medical aid groups say that increasing Israeli military activity means they have been forced to stop working at Gaza's al-Aqsa Hospital.

In a statement, the Medical Aid for Palestinians and International Rescue Committee's emergency medical team (EMT) says Israel's military has dropped leaflets designating the areas surrounding the hospital as a "red zone", adding that given Israel's history of attacks on medical staff and facilities in Gaza, "the team is unable to return".

Professor Nick Maynard, a surgeon and clinical lead EMT, says the number of wounded being brought to the hospital over the last few days has been "horrific".

Dr James Smith, emergency medical specialist with the EMT, says he is fearful "for the immediate safety of people in the area, the Palestinian staff we’ve worked alongside, the hundreds of patients in the hospital, and thousands of displaced people in the hospital compound and nearby camps.”

A local emergency physician in the area adds: “I’m really scared because the past few days they’re getting closer and closer, and no place is safe anymore. Where should people go if they get injured?"

The Medical Aid for Palestinians charity and the International Rescue Committee say they remain committed to sustaining providing emergency medical services in Gaza "wherever it is safe to do so".

Image source, .

Seventy-three Palestinians have been killed and 99 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza over the past day, the Hamas-run health ministry has said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has cancelled another mission to transport medial supplies to northern Gaza after failing to be given security guarantees.

It is the fourth mission aiming to bring urgent supplies to the al-Awda Hospital and a key pharmacy that has been cancelled since 26 December, a statement from the UN's global health body says.

The WHO adds it has been 12 days since it has been able to reach northern Gaza, where much of the heaviest fighting has been taking place since Israel launched a ground invasion.

"Heavy bombardment, movement restrictions, and interrupted communications are making it nearly impossible to deliver medical supplies regularly and safely across Gaza, particularly in the north", a WHO statement says.

Sunday's delivery had been scheduled to ensure five hospitals in the north are able to continue treating people.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says he is "shocked by the scale of health needs and devastation in northern Gaza", adding that any more delays will "will lead to more death and suffering for far too many people".

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

Antony Blinken's first stop today was a meeting in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

He will then fly to the remote Saudi Arabian town of Al 'Ula to hold talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Blinken's focus will be on addressing the threat Houthi rebels pose to shipping in the Red Sea and discussing US proposals for managing a lasting peace in Gaza once the Israeli military campaign ends.

State department officials have said that behind closed doors Arab leaders have been more willing to discuss long term planning for the Palestinians on this trip, than on Blinken's previous visits.

Image source, Israel Police

Israeli police say they are dealing with a rocket which fell on the city of Kiryat Shmona, near the border with Lebanon.

No casualties or damage to property has been reported, but the attack comes after days of escalating tensions between Israel and the powerful Lebanese militia Hezbollah - who are key allies of Hamas.

Cross-border strikes have been occurring for months, but tensions heightened following the killing of senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri in the Lebanese capital Beirut last week.

Overnight, the IDF says it hit "numerous Hezbollah targets", including rocket launch positions and a Hezbollah military compound in Lebanon.

Hezbollah has also claimed successful attacks on Israeli military positions, including barracks and a radar site in northern Israel.

Now for an update from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Posting to Telegram, the military says its troops have killed 10 "terrorists" in Khan Younis preparing to launch rockets towards Israeli territory.

It adds that its troops, along with the Israeli Air Force, struck 30 significant targets in the city in southern Gaza, including underground targets, terror infrastructure and weapons storage facilities.

The IDF says it identified and killed three more Hamas members in separate incidents in the area.

In an agricultural area in the central Gaza Strip, the IDF says troops located a tunnel shaft, thousands of dollars and weapons.

And in al-Maghazi, central Gaza, it says troops directed a fighter jet, which struck a weapons storage facility containing long-range rockets.

Image source, EPA

Yesterday, there were several reports of violence in the occupied West Bank, having surged in recent months due to the war in Gaza.

Seven people were killed in an Israeli raid on the city of Jenin, the health ministry in Ramallah said, after an air strike reportedly targeted a gathering in the area.

Israel's military said an Israeli border officer was killed and several others were wounded when their vehicle struck an explosive device.

The Jenin Brigade, an armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack on the Israeli security forces.

An Israeli man was also killed in a shooting attack elsewhere in the West Bank.

Israeli emergency services also said police killed a young Palestinian girl in a car at a West Bank crossing when they opened fire on another car suspected of a ramming attack.

Reports emerged on Sunday that dozens of people were killed in Israeli air strikes on a refugee camp in northern Gaza.

Footage from Jabalia shows bodies lying in the rubble of a destroyed building - many of them women and children.

Asked about the strikes, the Israeli military said it had “acted against a military target” and is “not aware of the number of casualties mentioned”.

The Jabalia camp has been hit several times since Israel began its war against Hamas, following the unprecedented attacks on southern Israel which led to 1,200 people being killed and around 240 kidnapped.

More than 22,000 people - mostly women and children - have been killed in Gaza by Israeli strikes, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Image source, Reuters

Speaking in Qatar yesterday as part of his most recent Middle East tour, Antony Blinken warned Palestinians must not be pressured into leaving Gaza and must be allowed to return to their homes, once conditions allow.

The US secretary of state’s comments came alongside a condemnation of statements by Israeli far-right ministers, who have called for the displacement of Palestinians.

Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Palestinians should leave Gaza and make way for Israeli settlers who could "make the desert bloom", while National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has issued a call "to encourage the migration of Gaza residents" as a "solution" to the crisis.

The official line from the Israeli government is that Gazans will eventually be able to return to their homes, though it has yet to outline how or when this will be possible.

Following these comments in recent days, Blinken said yesterday: "Palestinian civilians must be able to return home as soon as conditions allow.

"They cannot, they must not be pressed to leave Gaza."

You join us as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken continues his latest tour of the Middle East amid rising tensions in the region.

Blinken is due to travel to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia today.

This is the 94th day of Israel's bombardment of Gaza, where more than 22,000 people have been killed, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry in the territory.

The recent bout of fighting began after Hamas's 7 October attacks, which killed around 1,200 people and more than 200 others were taken hostage.

Stay with us as we bring you the latest updates.